Local production group has big film dreams

Future filmmakers from Union County will be in Weddington over the weekend, wrapping up the final scenes of a film that has been approved by the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union that represents professional actors and filmmakers.

The film, a new media production, is the culmination of the Enrichment Arts Program, an afterschool program that services youth in Union County. The instructors are Cory Riback and Linda Watt, who own Corlin Productions and Charlotteacting.com.

Watt received a Grassroots Arts Program grant from the Union County Community Arts Council and the North Carolina Arts Council. They have won the grant for four years.

"Every year we've produced a film with the students," Watt said.

This year's script was written two years ago by Enrichment Arts Program alumni. However, at the time the script was too ambitious to film in its entirety, so the group only filmed a few scenes.

Watt brought the alumni back, along with current students. They began filming in November. However, the flu season delayed filming a bit.

"It's been great," Watt said. "It's been great for all of them."

Watt said the crew is learning how serious filming is and how focused they have to be, while the actors are learning how to be committed to a role.

"It's great experience for them," she said.

Because the film has been approved by SAG-AFTRA, Watt thinks it will look good on college transcripts or resumes in the future.

When she started four years ago, she found that students had access to equipment, but did not know how to use it. She created the programming to provide method acting classes and hands-on experience with professional equipment.

The syllabus is approved by Larry Robinson, a theater teacher at Central Academy of Technology and Arts and Rob Jackson, community relations and communications liaison with Union County Public Schools.

The students are making the film using equipment supplied by Corlin productions, Watt's production company. They are using high-definition cameras, lighting, sound equipment and computer film editing suites like Protools.